


I'm Sorry, Dad

by c_morrigan



Category: Nevermoor Series - Jessica Townsend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29201922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c_morrigan/pseuds/c_morrigan
Summary: Not gonna lie, I’m actually really happy with this! It’s a bit rushed, but I was very obsessed with the idea (it came to me in a dream, no joke). I like the concept, and I think I got it out pretty good!
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not gonna lie, I’m actually really happy with this! It’s a bit rushed, but I was very obsessed with the idea (it came to me in a dream, no joke). I like the concept, and I think I got it out pretty good!

Jupiter stared at Frank's small form, lying crumpled and mangled before. He heard a strangled sound, and it took him a minute to realise it had come from him.   
Frank couldn’t be dead. Frank was already dead. You couldn’t kill someone that was undead! That was the whole point! But the sobs that escaped his chest as he kneeled down and tried but failed to shake the vampire dwarf awake told him otherwise.  
"How did this happen?" he rasped, looking around at the heartbroken faces of the Deucalion staff. No. Not just heartbroken. Jupiter saw more than the pain of loss on their faces. For him, they were as easily read as a book. He saw betrayal, and fear woven through their shades. They had all seen what had happened. "Who did this?" he demanded.   
But he knew. Only a Wundersmith could've had the power to kill someone that was already dead. Squall had done this. There was no other explanation available.  
Nobody would meet his eye. Save for Fenestra. She had never had any qualms about speaking the truth.  
"Fen." He could practically see her thought process. She was… she was scared of the answer. Of what it meant. Why? What had Squall done? "Tell me."  
Fenestra took a deep breath and replied. "I'm sorry, Jove. It was Morrigan."  
That was the exact moment when his world stopped making sense.


	2. Chapter 2

She panted as she ran, unsure of where she was going, of what had happened and what was going to happen. She hadn't let herself think about it. She couldn’t think about it. It was too terrible, too horrible to think about.

She sobbed, racing around the corner, not even seeing Cadence before she had crashed into the other girl.

"Hey, watch where you're going, you idiot," Cadence said affectionately. When she noticed the tears streaming down her girlfriend's face, she grew sombre. "Did something happen? Morrigan, are you alright?"

Morrigan shook her head. "No, I'm not, Cadence. I'm broken and I'm a monster and you need to stay away from me before you get hurt too."

"Woah, slow down. Come here and sit down with me. Tell me what happened."

"No. Cadence, I- I have to go. I messed up."

"You've made mistakes before, Morrigan. We can fix this. We always find a way."

Morrigan looked up at Cadence with tears in her eyes. "No. We can't fix death, Cadence."

Cadence stopped. "Morrigan. Look at me. You have to tell me what happened."

Eyes wide, Morrigan led Cadence somewhere she knew Jupiter wouldn’t think to look for her.

Morrigan bit her lip, looking at Cadence and wincing at the unfaltering trust, confidence that Cadence had in her eyes. She didn’t believe that Morrigan could do something so terrible, but she had.

"Just tell me, Morrigan. Nothing you do could ever change how I feel about you."  
"Well it should," Morrigan replied, taking a deep breath, before deciding to just rip the plaster off. "I killed Frank, Cadence."

Cadence stared at Morrigan, and Morrigan held her breath as the girl she loved searched her eyes for something, but what she was looking for, Morrigan couldn’t say.

"Okay. What do you want to do?"

"What?" Morrigan stared at Cadence incredulously. "What are you talking about?"

"Do you want to run?"

"Run?" Morrigan echoed.

"Do you want to run, Morrigan? We could do it. The two of us are perfectly suited to leaving Nevermoor undetected."

Morrigan felt herself stiffen. She hadn't even remotely thought this far ahead. But Cadence was right. If anybody could get past the Stink, and the Stealth, it was the two of them. And they could be together. It would mean leaving Nevermoor behind, leaving Jupiter and her friends, but wasn’t that going to happen anyway? They wouldn’t want anything to do with her now. If she stayed, she'd be locked up. Not even Jupiter could talk his way around that. And she wasn’t sure he'd want to.

But. Squall was still out there. And so was their enemy. She knew about them now. She couldn’t leave, she couldn’t leave Nevermoor to face that alone. Staying might be harder, but it was right. She had to face what she had done.

"No. I have to stay here, Cadence. I'm sorry."

Cadence nodded. "That's okay. If that's what you want. Do you want to hide at my place? Or we could find a place for you to stay? I'm sure I could work something out."

Morrigan took a deep breath. This was the hardest decision she had ever made in her life. She found herself sobbing into Cadence's chest, the weight of what she had done crashing in on top of her. She hadn't wanted to kill Frank.

Except she had. That anger had been there. Her fury had been so strong, so severe, that at that moment, she had wanted Frank dead. So she killed him.  
She had regretted it immediately. Of course she had. But it was too late. She had let the power take over her at the moment, and Frank had died because of her. She knew what she should do.

"I want to turn myself in."

"Are you sure?" Cadence asked, voice trembling, avoiding Morrigan's gaze. "Morrigan, we can't- there's no going back from that."

Morrigan nodded, tears falling down her cheeks. "I don’t want to run, Cadence. I don’t want them to think… to think that I wanted Frank to die. I didn’t mean for it to happen, I swear."

"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay. I know you'd never try to hurt anybody on purpose. I know who you are, Morrigan Crow, and you are a good person."

Morrigan's eyes softened, and she felt that familiar glow inside her, the one she had always associated with Cadence.

"And I love you. I don’t make mistakes." It wasn’t the first time Morrigan had heard those words from her girlfriend, but it felt like it might be the last time.

Morrigan had first met Cadence six years ago, and at the time she never would've guessed just how much of an impact the girl would have on her life.

So she looked at Cadence, memorising every inch of that face as though she didn’t already know it better than the palm of her hand. She grabbed Cadence by the waist and pulled her in closer. Cadence bit her lip as she leaned down and looked straight into Morrigan's eyes, both girls transfixed. Morrigan held her face gently in her hands, leaning in and planting a soft kiss on her lips.

"I love you too," she breathed, before turning and running as fast as she could, not daring to look back in case the sight of Cadence broke her resolve..


	3. Chapter 3

Jupiter gulped as he walked up to the desk. Inspector Flintlock was busy with files, so didn’t hear Jupiter come in. Jupiter cleared his throat to get the inspectors attention, and Flintlock looked up, irritation clouding him as he took in Jupiter.

"What do you want, North?" Flintlock greeted, not even bothering to hide his distaste.

"I- I need to report a missing child."

Flintlock paused, as though checking to see whether Jupiter was serious. He sighed as he took out a form and grabbed a pen. "Alrighty. Name?"  
"Morrigan Crow."

Flintlock stopped at this. "Is this some sort of joke, North?" he asked coldly.

Jupiter frowned, ignoring the backflips his stomach was doing. "No. No, Inspector, I assure you. My dau- my candidate," he corrected himself. Finding Morrigan would require facts, not feelings. He never had adopted Morrigan. He'd assumed there was all the time in the world. How wrong he had been. Focus. "She's missing. She was last seen-"

"North, I don’t have time for this. We know what she did. If you're trying to get her out of trouble, or give her an alibi, then I'm afraid-"

"How did you- what do you think she's done?" Jupiter asked, heart sinking as he wondered how word had possibly spread this fast. It had only happened that morning. How could the Stink already know about it?

Flintlock raised an eyebrow. "She's been here hours. We have her in a cell, with trained guards watching her every move."

"She's a child, Flintlock!" Jupiter exploded. "You have no right to keep her-"

"We have every right. She's a murderer. We have a signed confession."

Jupiter stopped. "A what?"

Flintlock sneered. "The murderer signed a confession, admitting to killing a staff member of your hotel. Don’t tell me you didn’t know, Captain?"

Jupiter couldn’t believe what was happening right now. He hadn't actually believed that Morrigan would've hurt Frank. He still didn’t.

"I want to see her, Inspector. Make sure you're treating her right."

"Afraid not, North. She's a murderer. And a murderer who doesn’t want visitors, for that matter. I don’t see any reason to grant you your request."

Jupiter shook his head. He held his shiny W pin out on his palm. "I want to see my candidate," he said forcefully.

Flintlock glowered at Jupiter. "That pin must be going to your head. Nobody is above the law. Not even your precious Wundersmith," he spat.


	4. Chapter 4

Morrigan groaned as she leaned over the side of her bed, retching as her eyes blearily adjusted to the lack of light in her room. Room 85 must've been in a particularly bad mood. It looked like some sort of prison cell. And all her furniture had disappeared.

Then she remembered. She wasn’t in the Deucalion anymore. She probably never would be again. The events of the previous week came flooding back to her. 

She hadn't spoken to anybody since she had turned herself in. They'd been keeping her in solitary confinement, and Morrigan couldn’t blame them. Nobody seemed to know what to do with her, so they were waiting on a decision from higher up.

She had become weak, and she hated herself for it. Jail wasn’t known for the gourmet, but the more Morrigan ate, the more ill she felt. At first, she had thought it was guilt. After all, why should she feel good?

But now she was getting more and more certain that she was being poisoned. She just didn’t see that there was anything she could do about it. Her two options appeared to die of poison or die from lack of nutrition. Death by poison would sound better in history books, she found herself thinking.

She had stopped moving though, the effort it would take to get up and eat the poisoned porridge far too much. At this point, she was beginning to accept that she would die here. She had regrets, sure, but then wasn’t that a part of death? It wasn’t exactly like she had a choice in the matter anyway.

Had she realised what was happening to her earlier, she might've used Wunder to save herself. But now she hadn't the strength within her, nor the will to live. She knew that she had wanted to live, but her poison-riddled mind couldn’t quite remember why.

There was a scuffle outside the door, and somebody came into the room. Morrigan didn’t have the energy to lift her head and look at the person, but there was no complaint. They roughly opened her mouth and forced the porridge down her throat, and Morrigan found that she had no fight left in her, simply letting the stranger have at it.

She threw up most of it anyway.


	5. Chapter 5

Jupiter couldn’t believe his luck. What Elder Quinn must've done to get him a minute with Morrigan he couldn’t imagine. They'd had their differences, but he knew he could always count on Elder Quinn to do the right thing at the end of the day. 

Now he just had to work out what to say to Morrigan. He'd been up all night, but he still didn’t have the first clue how to talk about what had happened. He did know, however, that the first thing he was going to do when he saw her was squeeze her tight and stroke her hair as he used to when she was younger.

Of course, the second he saw her, that plan fell through the roof. He stared at the crumpled form by the window, expecting to be led further down the corridor, only for the guard to open the cell door and motion him inside

That was when he realised that the wasted body in the corner was Morrigan. A gasp escaped Jupiter as he rushed forward, cradling her gently in his arms. The lights coming from her were weak. Far too weak. "Mog? Mog, please, please, please look at me. Mog?"

She gave a small groan, eyelids fluttering, but didn’t move any more than that. Jupiter looked up, glaring at the guard with such an intensity that it was a wonder the guard didn’t burst into flames. 

"What happened to her? Who did this?"

The guard hesitated. "She stopped eating. We- we tried to feed her. But she wouldn’t cooperate. We didn’t know what to do. I'm sorry."

Jupiter nodded, gazing down at the small figure in his arms. "When's the last time she ate?"

The guard shrugged. "I don’t know, I'm afraid."

"Get a healer down here." Seeing the guard's uncertainty, he snapped. "You can lock me in here with her if it makes you feel better, but I'll be damned if I'm letting Morrigan Crow go out like this."

The guard agreed to this, shutting the door with a clang before racing back up the corridor.


	6. Chapter 6

Morrigan stirred, sensing motion around her. There was somebody holding her. Why? What had happened? She tried to sit up, but the strength in her muscles was all gone, and there was little she could do.

Her head felt as though it were on fire and the effort it took to crack her eyelids open sent a sharp pain rattling through her skull. The arms holding her pulled her up as she moved, but she couldn’t tell what was happening, or who it was.  
She tried to get her words out, but they were jumbled and incoherent.

"Shhh, Mog, you're going to be fine. I've got you. Don’t worry. A healer's coming."

Morrigan moaned at the sound of Jupiter's voice. "Am I dying?" she whispered, and this time he heard her.

Jupiter looked at Morrigan with distress. "No, Morrigan. I'm here. Nothing's going to happen. I've got you, Morrigan," he sobbed quietly.

Morrigan groaned as she shifted her weight. Her stomach panged as she tried to lean forward. "Why are you here?" she muttered.

"To look after you, Mog." The sincerity in his voice only made her feel worse. Did he even know what had happened? This was exactly what she hadn't wanted to happen. Jupiter could read her too easily, and he'd realise that Frank's death hadn't been-

Morrigan shoved her back against the wall, hissing from the pain, trying to control her thoughts. She didn’t want Jupiter to know. She couldn’t let him see.

"Morrigan!" Jupiter reprimanded. "Be careful. You're going to get yourself hurt."

Morrigan bit her lip and nodded, cheeks burning as the tears began to spill out of her unchecked. "I'm sorry," she rasped, but what she was apologising for, she couldn’t say.

"No, no. Don't be sorry. It's not your fault. You're hurt, Mog. We're going to get you help." Jupiter hesitated. "Mog? They- the guard- she said… she said you stopped eating."

Morrigan nodded slowly. She didn’t have the energy to explain herself. She couldn’t even fully recall the events that had led to this. Had she been poisoned? Perhaps she had only been making that up, misunderstanding what had happened. It didn’t matter now. "I'm going to die," she said quietly.

"No," Jupiter replied forcefully. "Not as long as I have a say in the matter," he added softly.

Morrigan was barely conscious, but she couldn’t help spluttering at this. "Why do you care?" she asked, her voice a cold and quiet wind.

Jupiter stared at her, and she just knew he was reading her.

"Stop that," she moaned. "Just answer my question. I killed Frank. Why do you care about me?"

"Morrigan," his voice was low and hushed. "You did- you're a good person. But you don’t know how to look after yourself, which is why I'm here. To care for you. Because you deserve to live, Morrigan Crow."

She shook her head. "Well you're going to have to find somebody else to save. I'm not who you wanted me to be."

"No. You're not. You're so much more than I ever could've dreamed, Mog. You're growing into an amazing young woman, and I am so proud to call myself your patron."

Morrigan wept into his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Dad."


End file.
